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Neymar walked off the field with teammate Dani Alves by his side, tears still rolling down the Brazil forward’s cheeks.
Other players had already tried to console Neymar as he cried while sitting near midfield, head down, hiding his face.
There wasn’t much they could say to get the team’s biggest star to lift his head up.
Again there was disappointment instead of joy at the end of a World Cup for Neymar. Again he couldn’t lead Brazil to a major title.
It was his third failure at a World Cup, and his only triumphs with the national team are the 2013 Confederations Cup and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when Brazil won its first gold medal in soccer.
Neymar said it wasn’t the time to talk about his future with the national team.
“Honestly, I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s hard to talk about it right now,” he said.
“It would be too hasty to come here and say that this is it, but I can’t guarantee anything. I have to take some time to think about it. I’m not closing any doors to the Seleo, but I’m also not saying 100% that I want to be back.”
Neymar scored Friday to move level with Pel as Brazil’s all-time leading scorer with 77 goals, but the Seleo ended up losing to Croatia 4-2 in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals after the match finished 1-1 after extra time.
Neymar never had a chance to take a penalty after Rodrygo and Marquinhos missed their spot kicks.
